Ye Chengtian finally realized that he had misjudged this worthless man! He thought he was using him, but in truth, it was the other way around. Now, by shifting all the blame onto himself, the man had come out clean!
Ye Chengtian wanted to curse, but when he opened his mouth, all that came out were helpless grunts of “ahh.”
Fang Zhiyi reached out and patted the shoulders of the two stunned guards. “Thank you for seeing him off. When you’re done, go find Li Zizai for your reward.”
With that, he turned and walked away.
Inside the palace, the Emperor was studying a stack of documents before him, a eunuch standing silently nearby.
The Emperor finally set the documents down. “Liu Xian, are you saying that my own blood brother harbors rebellious intentions?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” replied Liu Xian without lifting his head. “I sent spies to investigate. Prince Qi not only keeps a private army but also trains assassins… and he has even made a dragon robe.”
Hearing this, the Emperor’s tone grew noticeably colder. “Liu Xian! You dare to frame Prince Qi? Do you forget that he is my brother?”
Liu Xian knelt unhurriedly, his voice steady. “Your Majesty, every word I speak is true. The Surveillance Bureau under my command oversees all matters under heaven, and I would never utter a falsehood. If Your Majesty doubts me, please visit Prince Qi’s residence and see for yourself.”
The Emperor rubbed his temples. Prince Qi Fang Zhiyi had always been critical of him, and the Emperor had sensed something was off, but he didn’t want to dwell on it. The court was unstable now, with almost no one he could trust.
Could it be that even his own brother was his enemy?
Looking at the calm-faced Liu Xian, the Emperor felt a flicker of disgust. It was clear that Liu Xian was backing him into a corner to investigate Prince Qi!
The Emperor knew full well that the eunuch faction led by Liu Xian was locked in a deadly struggle with the Ningxi faction. Now that Prince Qi had openly sided with the Ningxi faction, Liu Xian was likely using this opportunity to destroy them.
But the Emperor also knew he had no choice. If only he were Emperor Taizong…
Alas.
Beyond the walls of the Great Zhou, the Liao Kingdom lurked like a hungry tiger. This throne was certainly a hot seat.
With these thoughts, the Emperor rose. “Let’s go.”
Deep down, he clung to a shred of hope. If Fang Zhiyi hadn’t done those things, then everything would be fine.
He could only hope.
The Emperor’s carriage arrived at Prince Qi’s mansion. Numerous spies scattered to report back to their masters.
Beneath the calm surface of the capital, a storm was brewing.
What surprised the Emperor was how unusually quiet Prince Qi’s mansion was today. His brother was known for loving lively gatherings, with many servants about, but today…
The Emperor frowned. A faint smell of blood hung in the air.
“His Majesty the Emperor has arrived!” a young eunuch shouted at the top of his lungs.
Liu Xian frowned. This Prince Qi was putting on quite the air.
After the call, it was a while before Fang Zhiyi came rushing over, with traces of sweat still visible on his face.
The Emperor watched him offer a sloppy bow but did not get angry. “Prince Qi, what have you been busy with?”
Fang Zhiyi glanced at Liu Xian. “Imperial Brother, I didn’t know you were coming. I was… taking care of a small matter.”
The Emperor looked at him quizzically. Liu Xian leaned in to whisper, “Your Majesty, according to the report, the item is hidden in the secret chamber beneath the rockery in the garden.”
The Emperor, his expression complicated, finally waved his sleeve. “Then I’ll take a look around your garden!”
“Huh?” Fang Zhiyi wanted to say something, but he watched as the Emperor’s party headed toward the garden.
Not far away, Li Zizai made a gesture toward Fang Zhiyi. Fang Zhiyi shook his head. Li Zizai nodded and stepped back. Then Fang Zhiyi caught up with the Emperor’s procession. They moved with purpose, as if they already knew the location of Fang Zhiyi’s secret chamber.
Under a young eunuch’s manipulation, a stone door appeared on the rockery and slowly opened.
The Emperor looked at the door, then turned to glance at Fang Zhiyi. His eyes were full of disappointment.
Urged on by Liu Xian, he stepped inside.
The secret chamber was not large. Inside hung a suit of armor, a blade, and a bow. Most of the space was filled with chests. The Emperor opened one and was stunned to find it packed with gold and silver treasure!
But soon, his gaze was drawn to the object in the center.
It was a bright yellow dragon robe, its five-clawed golden dragons so dazzling they stung the Emperor’s eyes.
“Your Majesty, the evidence is conclusive.” Liu Xian smirked triumphantly. With a wave of his hand, two of his men carefully lifted the dragon robe and presented it before the Emperor.
The Emperor stood motionless for a long time. Finally, he reached out and gently grasped the dragon robe.
Was this seat so desirable that everyone wanted to fight for it? Even his own brother? Did he know how hard it was to sit there?
At that moment, a letter fell out.
Liu Xian rejoiced, believing he had found evidence connecting Prince Qi to the Ningxi faction. He quickly bent down, picked it up, and respectfully handed it to the Emperor.
The Emperor took the letter and slowly opened it by the flickering light. He knew what this meant, but he was the Emperor, and there was no way around it.
But when he saw the first line of the letter, the Emperor froze.
“Imperial Brother! Don’t thank me! You live such a hard life as the Emperor. The other day at court, I noticed your dragon robe was torn. So I spent a fortune to have someone from Jiangnan secretly make you this new one. But they say making a dragon robe privately is a capital offense, so I dared not give it to you. I was planning to slip it to you on your birthday…”
What followed was a long string of rambling words, mainly about how frugal the Emperor was.
But to the Emperor, these words stirred a strange feeling in his heart.
He had believed that the evidence of Prince Qi’s rebellion was solid. Now, it seemed that his brother harbored no such thoughts at all. Instead, he had even remembered to make the Emperor a new dragon robe!
Beside him, Liu Xian, seeing the Emperor staring blankly at the letter, itched with curiosity and craned his neck, trying to catch sight of any rebellious names.
Suddenly, chaos erupted outside.
Then Fang Zhiyi stormed in. Liu Xian shouted in panic, “Protect the Emperor!” But even as he cried out, he was the first to retreat.
The two men Liu Xian had brought turned to attack, but Fang Zhiyi grabbed them with both hands and knocked them unconscious.
“Prince Qi! What do you think you’re doing?” the Emperor shouted in shock.
Fang Zhiyi glanced at him and muttered, “When it comes to rebellion, I’m a professional…”
“What did you say?” the Emperor asked, not catching it.
“I said, purge the evil from the court!” Fang Zhiyi declared. A sword appeared in his hand, and he thrust it straight at Liu Xian. Liu Xian had never expected Prince Qi to be so mad as to attack him right in front of the Emperor!
He drew his short blade to defend himself but discovered that Prince Qi was far more skilled than he appeared. In just a few moves, Fang Zhiyi knocked his blade away and pressed the tip of his sword against Liu Xian’s throat.
“Your Majesty, save me!” Liu Xian screamed in terror.
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
